This is a wiki page.
You can edit it.

Flying

From Envirowiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Flying is the act of moving through the air, with some form of propulsion. Birds do it.

Flying is and oft-talked about topic in environmental circle, mostly due the the high impact of jet travel. Jet travel currently contributes to around 2% of global greenhouse emissions, and this figure is rising.

Aviation is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions, and it's growth is based largely on unnecessary travel – "Love Miles": people travelling to see their families, cheap holidays, and business trips. This is extremely problematic, as the greenhouse emissions from flying, released high in the atmosphere, have a far greater effect than ground-level emissions (3.6 times as potent (IPCC)). This trend must be reversed: Flying must be reduced as quickly as possible.

As little as ten years ago, flying was much more expensive, and therefore much less used. If people needed to travel interstate, they would drive or catch public transport. No-one had any problem with that. Now, due to perverse pricing schedules that see flying cheaper than public transport, more and more people are flying. One method of reduction is to increase prices – A carbon tax could do this, however such a tax must include and account for the increased impact of high-altitude emissions. Such a tax could be funnelled back into low-emission transport, such as electric trains, and increased coach networks.

However, this answer is not entirely equitable: one around the world flight is more than equivalent to the total equitable carbon output for one person. It might be more equitable to use a rationing system, or simply implement a ban on all on-essential air travel.

[edit] Flying impacts

Obviously there are forms of flying that have a minimal impact - hang gliding for instance.

Jet travel has a higher impact than almost all other forms of transport per weight/distance. This is due to the fact that the power required to force a large chunk of metal through the air, by pushing it forwards at an incline into a substance with very little viscosity is huge.

It also has a larger than normal effect because the greenhouse emissions have a stronger impact in the upper atmoshphere than the do at low altitudes (most passenger jets fly at around 10km high). The IPCC says that the impact is multiplied by a factor of ~3.6.

[edit] Why environmentalist shouldn't fly

A discussion started on the SEAN e-list in early 2007, in regards to the "sustainable transport subsidy" offered to anyone trying to minimise their transport emissions on the way to SOS 2007, in perth, mostly by not flying. Someone complained that the subsidies were inequitable, and a bad political move, as they shifted the focus to the individual's impact on the environment, and away from the corporate drive for more and meaner environmental impact. The main reason being that this focus shift gives people a false sense of having a beneficial effect, while the corporations can continue getting away with murder.

This post sparked a number of responses, mostly in disagreeance with the original post's vehemence. The first response argued that both an attack on corporate environmental destruction and a curtailing of individual impacts was necessary.

Other arguements/responses included:

  • The conference shouldn't have been held in perth in the first place, as it neccesitated large numbers of people travelling long distances from the east coast to get there. the counter arguement was that SOS is nearly always held on the east coast, and it was time for perth people not to have to travel (probably a burn-out/social sustainability thing more than environmental argument).
  • That the subsidy was good as a symbolic challenge to the social norm of increased air travel.
    • That even if a 25% MRET within 5 years was introduced, the GHG savings would be outstripped by the increase in flying emissions.
  • To not be a hypocrite - arguing for others to take direct and immediate action (be they individuals, governments, or corporations), while not doing so your self, especially for non-essential flights.
  • It's good to make it clear that flying should be the last resort.

[edit] resources

Retrieved from "http://en.envirowiki.info/Flying"
Personal tools